The Woods

By Margy Frazier
Staff Writer
Horseback riding, caroling and comedy are just some of the diversions students can enjoy during the otherwise stressful Finals Week, from Dec. 8-10.
Study Day, an entire day free from classes, will start with  the anual senior ride and caroling from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.  All equine seniors that are majors, minors, or on an equestrian team are invited to come, according to Emily Theising, a senior majoring in equine training and instruction.
The ride will begin at Owens Hall at 10 a.m., arrive behind Le Fer around 10:30 a.m., the Woods Daycare at 11 a.m., inbetween Guerin Hall and the Library around 11:30 a.m., and the Conservatory between 11:45 a.m. and 12 p.m.
In addition to the seniors involved in the equine ride, the equine faculty are also invited. This year Dottie King, interim president, and Tara Lane, employer relations coordinator for Career Development, will be joining the ride.
“We’ll be visiting buildings along the way and stopping to sing Christmas songs,” said Theising.
Two of the songs that they will be singing are Jingle Bell Rock and Feliz Navidad. The seniors are also getting sweatshirts for the ride with a design done by Chris Marks, professor of Equine Studies.
In the evening Campus Life will provide entertainment in the form of comedian, Adam Grabowski, starting at 9 p.m. in Sullivan Parlor.

Popularity: 11% [?]

By Margy Frazier
Staff Writer

Harvest Lights 2010 featured a biggest turnout in a few  years of students and faculty reading their creative work. The reading was Oct. 20 in the Hulman Hall Conference center. This annual event was sponsored by Aurora Literary Magazine and the Languages and Literature Department.
Nine people – including Aurora staff, students, and professors – read 13 selections.
One reader, Gabrielle Hasler, read two of her original pieces of poetry. One of these, “A Message from My Toes,” was a humorous piece of prose detailing how she was laying in bed one day, and her toes delivered to her a message – she was growing older every day.
“I take inspiration from scary things,” she said. “Growing up scares me, and so do monsters.”
The other piece that Hasler read, titled “Mortal’s Mysterious Death,” was a poetic description of a walk alone that turns deadly at the hands of an unknown creature.
Aurora literary magazine is an important part of the college’s publishing history. Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College was the first women’s college to offer journalism. The student newspaper dates back to 1918 and the college has copies of the Aurora magazine from the mid-1920s, when they were sewn together by hand with a needle and thread.
Aurora is an annual production that will be published in the late spring. Pieces that are accepted include artwork, poetry and prose.
“We consider everything that we get,” said Janice Dukes, the Aurora advisor and professor of speech communication. “We’ve even published a short play.”
For those students who missed the fall reading, Cecilia Pryor, the editor of Aurora, is extending several opportunities to share their work, including an invitation to participate in the spring installment, Prima Vera. More information, including a date, will be announced soon.
The Max Erhman Poetry Contest will be held in the spring. Students of all ages and grade levels are invited to participate. For more information, check outside of Dukes’ office, Le Fer 17, or ask a member of the Languages and Literature department.
For those interested in seeing their works published, please submit the pieces auroraeditor@email.smwc.edu by Feb. 1.
For back issues of Aurora, please visit http://www.smwc.edu/resources/college-relations/publications/aurora.

Popularity: 16% [?]

By Margy Frazier
Staff Writer

From the first time my family and I visited Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, we heard talk of the traditions. One tradition in particular that our tour-guide talked about several times throughout our tour was Big Sis/Lil’ Sis week.
She explained that for one week the upperclassmen would each adopt a freshman, international, or transfer student and spend a week leaving them gifts and decorating their doors. At the end of the week the bigs would reveal themselves to their littles.
The point of this tradition, our tour guide explained, was to help freshmen begin creating a support system and to guarantee that there would always be someone watching over them.
With all of the talk, I could not wait for the week to begin and was I ever in for a treat when the week started.
On Oct. 24, the announcement came over the loudspeaker at approximately 9:50 p.m. saying, “freshmen, transfers, and international students, you must be in your room in exactly ten minutes.”
My wing started going crazy. We ran from each other’s rooms, joking that this would be the last time we would see each other for a long time. After a few moments, our RA ushered us into our rooms and warned us to stay inside.
Soon we heard it; pounding on the doors, loud music playing, and worst of all – the sound of tape. Every one of my freshmen friends sent me a Facebook message, nearly all at once.
And if they weren’t on Facebook, they were on Skype. “I hear tape!” one friend wrote me in a panic. “I’m not going to be able to get out in the morning!”
Monday morning came and my roommate, Tracey Dykstra and I could get out of our room – but just barely. Tracey’s big sis had stretched men’s Depend diapers across our door. We carefully tore the bottom few off and found our treasures.
I was left a few goodies, and a magician’s costume, which I was instructed to wear all day. I did – to class, to meals, even to Chorale. In addition, I had to bring with me a magic kit and I was to perform six different tricks throughout the day.
Monday night wasn’t quite as frightening as the night before, now that we had a general idea of what would be happening. Tracey and I waited up for our bigs to come to our door, and then passed notes under the door with them.
Tuesday morning Tracey and I stood together inside of our room and slowly opened our door. A white curtain hung outside of our door and it blew gracefully as we stepped outside.
As we looked through our new gifts I discovered giant wall stickers, which I promptly stuck all over my room. After doing so I went back out to the hallway to discover my new costume for the day.
On this day Tracey would have to dress like a person from medieval times and I like the “alligator queen.” With my costume I found a note that told me to stand on a chair during lunch and announce that I was the queen of the alligators.
Lunch was fantastic – I danced the Cha-Cha slide with a few other friends, watched skits and dances, and listened to people sing. After a while, I built up the courage to stand on a chair and make my announcement. A loud applause followed.
Tuesday night was one of my favorite nights of the week! One of our bigs stood outside of our door decorating and whistled Christmas tunes at us. We stayed awake until past midnight passing notes under the door.
We opened the door Wednesday morning to find garbage bags covering the opening. As the door swung in green balloons fell inside our room forcing us to practically swim through them to get out of our room.
Tracey discovered the reason for the balloon color right away – she was to dress like a witch for the day.
I, on the other hand, was Garfield. Much to my professor’s delight, I gave a PowerPoint presentation that day to the class while wearing a mask and tail.
That night, my big sis, Jessica Zogbi, revealed herself to my twin and I because she couldn’t make it to revelation night. Jessica gave us shirts that she had tie-dyed with our initials on the front. Although we couldn’t go out that night, we decided to spend some time together later in the month.
Tracey and I locked ourselves in the room  and when our bigs came we passed tons of notes under the door with them. “There’s like 11 of us out here,” said one note. “It’s a huge mess, and so much fun.”
Tracey and I opened our door to find blue and yellow streamers weaved in front of our doorway on Thursday morning. There were horse posters plastered over our walls, and a final few gifts. Tracey would have to dress as a cowboy and ride her stick horse at lunch.
She asked me to join her and after we “rode” against each other she was declared the winner.
The whole experience was so great!

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